Implement Phonetic Name Searches with Double Metaphone etc

From:
andrew cooke <andrew@...>

Date:
Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:39:10 -0400

"Simple information searches -- name lookups, word searches, etc. --
are often implemented in terms of an exact match criterion. However,
given both the diversity of homophonic (pronounced the same) words and
names, as well as the propensity for humans to misspell surnames, this
simplistic criterion often yields less than desirable results, in the
form of reduced result sets, missing records that differ by a
misplaced letter or different national spelling.
This article series discusses Lawrence Phillips' Double Metaphone
phonetic matching algorithm, and provides several useful
implementations which can be employed in a variety of solutions, to
create more useful, effective searches of proper names in databases
and other collections."
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/string/dmetaphone1.aspx
Resources, limitations, alternatives:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/string/dmetaphone6.aspx
More implementations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Metaphone
Related Java project (but appears to use distance-like methods)
http://secondstring.sourceforge.net/
Andrew